Baby ‘denied new heart because of potential disability’

The parents of a baby girl who needs a new heart say she is being denied the transplant because of a potential disability. Over 100,000 people have backed the family.

Stephanie and Joshua Parra say their daughter Lily was taken off the heart transplant list because of a small amount of fluid on her brain which can lead to developmental disability.

They have set up a petition calling on the hospital in California, USA, to change its stance and so far over 100,000 have signed it.

Life worth living

Writing in support of the family, a leading disability rights campaigner said: “It’s a dangerous game to play — telling someone that her life is not worth living.”

The Parras were advised to consider aborting their daughter because she has a serious heart defect, with doctors telling the parents that she would be likely to die soon after birth.

However, they refused and Lily is now four months old. She needs a new heart and was initially on the shortlist to receive one.

No less deserving


“She deserves a chance. If a heart becomes available, she should be on the list to receive it.”

The Christian Institute shared the story of Hilary McDowell in 2014 – a successful writer and broadcaster who had been given a life expectancy of just three weeks.


When she was born doctors told her mother: “‘Take her home and love her and bury her because even if she did live’, the doctors said, ‘she would have no quality of life'”.

However McDowell explained that she felt she had many reasons to be positive, saying God “got inside the situation and transformed it from inside”.